Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?

Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

Monday, January 03, 2011

For those who think regular news about the state’s budget woes is nothing but esoteric rhetoric, the recent snow storm should give you a taste of what’s to come if Colorado lawmakers don’t do something soon.

Anyone out on the metro area roads the last few days couldn’t help but notice that even major interstates didn’t get the usual snow removal treatments, leaving snow-packed and icy roads and bridges for nature and traffic to finally clear. Much of that has to do with the state using fewer resources to clear roads in hopes of saving money.

Welcome to a leaner, meaner Colorado state budget. While state transportation officials will argue that public safety isn’t at risk, we’d argue that cutting state spending just about anywhere except the Colorado roads budget should be everyone’s goal. These are, however, tough times that are about to get tougher.

Despite repeated cuts during the past few years, Colorado must find ways to lop about $1 billion off its $8-billion annual budget. An Associated Press story points to a place the state can cut and still preserve important services such as road maintenance.

For the first time in almost 20 years, the state’s prison inmate population has finally quit growing, even as the state’s total population moves ahead. Since 1993 under a shortsighted and misguided conservative state government, Colorado’s prison population mushroomed from 9,300 inmates to a whopping 23,000 inmates in 2009. At a staggering cost of almost $30,000 to house each inmate every year, it’s no wonder that so much of the state’s resources are needed to feed one of the state’s fastest growing industries and leave less and less for things such as roads, education and health care.

The problem is that the state has been incarcerating drug addicts, alcoholics, the mentally ill and petty criminals and turning them into lifelong residents of the state’s prison systems at exorbitant taxpayer expense. Almost half of these men and women are imprisoned because of drug habits, alcoholism, conspiracy or other nonviolent offenses. We’re not suggesting that people don’t need to be policed and punished for violating laws, but study after study shows that by treating or preventing people from becoming mentally ill, drug addicts or alcoholics, taxpayers save big by having those future cell mates be productive, taxpaying citizens.

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

I agree, a very good article. Nationwide, the states are recognizing the same problems. We citizens do not owe DOC the right to keep these people after they have served there sentences. Colorado has to do away with that mandatory parole thing and force the DOC to start releasing prisoners on regular parole. It seems they are above the wishes of the people. Because of the way DOC operates they are responsible for creating mental illness within the prison's.